Resilient floor

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to resilient or elastic floors comprising an upper floor supported on a resilient means lying on a support. Said resilient means is built up from a lower layer of resilient elements positioned on the support, an intermediate floor positioned on said lower layer, and an upper layer of resilient elements positioned on the intermediate floor and supporting said upper floor.

United States Patent [72] Inventor Rune Ingmar Douglas DahlborgRipsavagen 57, Bandhagen, Sweden [21] Appl. No. 780,515 [22] Filed Dec.2, 1968 [45] Patented Sept. 14, 1971 [32] Priority Dec. 7, 1967 [33]Sweden [31] 16836/1967 [54] RESILIENT FLOOR 6 Claims, 2 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S. C1 52/508, 52/346, 52/480 [51 Int. Cl E04f 15/22 [50] Field ofSearch 52/346, 347, 364, 366, 378, 393, 688, 480, 508

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,370,769 3/1945 Baker et al52/715 Primary Examiner-Henry C. Sutherland Attorney-Pierce, Scheffler &Parker ABSTRACT: The invention relates to resilient or elastic floorscomprising an upper floor supported on a resilient means lying on asupport. Said resilient means is built up from a lower layer ofresilient elements positioned on the support, an intermediate floorpositioned on said lower layer, and an upper layer of resilient elementspositioned on the intermediate floor and supporting said upper floor.

RESILIENT FLOOR The present invention relates to resilient orelastically yielding floors, for instance for gymnastic establishmentsand the like.

In gymnastic and athletic establishments and similar buildings the floorcovering is subject to certain requirements, as concerns its ability toyield elastically under load. Even if the problem of providing floorshaving the necessary resilience may seem simple at a cursory glance theexperience shows, however, that the constructions will be expensive,time-consuming in erection and, moreover, to a great extent require alarge space. Several designs are known and, usually, the floor iserected on a resilient structure consisting in a complicated system ofwooden crossbars arranged on a nonresilient support, for instance on aconcrete arch. Such a resilient structure is time-consuming in erection,requires excessive amounts of material and, moreover, requires anunnecessarily large vertical space, often even up to 20 cm. It is easilyunderstood that the high cost in combination with the excessive spacerequirement of the structure causes an essential rise in price ascompared to a conventional, nonresilient floor.

Moreover, it is subject to quite great difficulties to provide auniform'resilience and an acceptable elasticity irrespective of thepoint of action on the floor with a resilient floor based on a system ofwooden crossbars as described above. Thus, there is a great demand for acheap resilient floor that can be manufactured at a low price and in ashort period of time and, moreover, requires a vertical space comparableto the requirement of conventional, nonresilient floors.

According to the present invention it has now surprisingly been foundthat a floor with resilience or elasticity comprising an upper floorsupported on a resilient means, said resilient means being in turnsupported on a support, for instance a concrete arch, can be obtained bymaking the resilient means from a lower layer of resilient elementssupported on the support and evenly distributed thereon, an intermediatefloor or diaphragm arranged on said lower layer and an upper layer ofresilient elements arranged on the intermediate floor and evenlydistributed thereon, the upper floor resting on said upper layer.Particular advantages are gained when the resilient elements in saidlower layer are arranged in square formation on the support and theresilient elements in said upper layer are arranged in square formationon the intermediate floor and so displaced relative to the elements ofthe lower layer that each element of the upper layer lies in the centerof the square, at the angles or corners of which the adjacent elementsofthe upper layer are positioned.

In order to facilitate the positioning of the elements on the supportand the intermediate floor the resilient elements may be attached tobands, for instance of plastic or textile.

The present invention will now be described more closely to anexemplifying embodiment thereof diagrammatically shown in the appendeddrawing.

' vertical section adjacent to a wall 3 having a kick ledge 4.

The floor structure proper consists in an upper floor consisting of alower floor 5 of for instance wood fiber board or a particle boardpreferably tongued and grooved, and a floor covering 7 consisting of alinoleum mat, milled or textured vinyl plates or the like. The resilientpart of the floor structure is based on two layers of resilient elements9 and 10, respectively, separately by' an intermediate floor ordiaphragm 6. Resilient elements 9 are, in the embodiment shown, attachedto plastic or textile bands 8, 12 and consist of cork plates or discs.

In FIG. 2-there is shown a plan view of-the floor of FIG. I, the upperfloor being removed.IThe resilient elements 9 of the lower layer areindicated with dotted circles inFlG. 2 and said elements 9 of thelowerlayer'are'arranged in a square formation by positioning bands 8regularly spaced and parallel to each other. The resilient elements 10of the upper layer in FIG. 2 indicated with full circles are alsoarranged in a square formation but displacedrelative to the lower layerhalf a pitch lengthwise and half a pitch crosswise. By. this arrangementeveryelement 10 of theupper layer will be positioned at an equaldistance from each ofthe adjacentfour elements 9 of the lower layer.

The described embodiment ofzthe floorof the invention is shown in FIG. 1in scale 1:2 and, thus, it is obviousthat, in spite of the resilientcharacteristics of the floor, the structural height thereof does notessentially exceed that of a conventional, nonresilient floor. In viewof the nonexpensive and simple design of the embodiment described aboveit may very well be used in floors in ordinary living houses, businessand office apartments etc. Thanks toits resiliencethefloor willsubstantially reduce the tiredness in the legs of the persons staying onthe floors in question. Of course, this is of aparticular importance insuch applications, where the persons in view of their profession walkover large distances, forinstance in hospitals, shops and the like.

The intermediate floor 6 can consist ofrparticle board or plywoodsheets, and the joints between the sheets'may-be suitably fixed withjoint profiles 15, for instance ofrigid plastic (FIG, 1).

The embodiment of the floor of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 hasexcellent resilience characteristics in view of the fact that theresilience'will-be the same irrespective of the point of action on thefloor thanks to the positioning of the elements 9, 10. Thus, thestructure is particularly useful in gymnastic, athletic, and similarestablishments and. causes,,in view of its simple design, a very smallrise in price as compared to conventional, nonresilient floors. As shownin FIG. 1, where the floor is illustrated in scale 1:2, the buildingheight is surprisingly small, in the example shown merelyabout 45 mm.The distance between the resilient elements in each layer may varywithin wide limits depending on the particular materials used in thefloor. However, in most cases a distance ofabout 15-20 cm. has beenfound suitable.

The resilient elements 9, 10 of the embodiments described above may, ofcourse, by made of any suitable resilient material. Thus, capsules ofplastic similar to those used for closing certain wine bottles may beused with advantage. Such plastic capsules may advantageously be weldedwith heat on plastic bands, the capsule suitably inthe side wall thereofbeing provided with holes for increasing the resilience thereof.

The bands carrying the resilient elements 9, 10 may, in. the factory,preferably be attached to both sides of the intermediate floor 6,whereby the. time of work at the site can be substantially reduced.(Bands 11 indicated with broken lines in Hg. 1 and band 12 with fulllines).

Thus, a surprisingly good resilience is obtained with the floor of thepresent invention, which resilience well fulfills the requirements onfloorsof gymnastic and athletic establishments etc. Moreover, a verygood sound insulation is obtained with the floor, which essentiallyreduces the transmission of walk noise when using the floor intenementhouses or the like. In view of its sound-insulating ability thefloor of the invention may, of course, also advantageously be used as asupport for certain machinery, preferablylight machines, so as to avoidtransmission of machine vibrations andother machine noises port andspaced from each other and distributed thereon in a spaced squareformation, a diaphragm arranged on said lower layer of resilientelements and spaced uniformly from said rigid support, at least oneupper layer of a plurality of resilient, independent, studlike elementsarranged on said diaphragm and spaced from each other and distributedthereon in spaced squared formation and displaced relative to saidresilient elements of the lower layer so that each upper element lies inthe center of the square formed by the lower resilient elements whenviewed in plan and a plurality of planar means, said resilient elementsbeing attached thereto in the desired spaced relation to facilitate thepositioning of the elements when erecting the floor, said upper floorresting on said upper layer of resilient elements.

2. A resilient floor according to claim 1, wherein said planar means towhich said resilient elements are attached are in turn attached toopposite sides of said diaphragm with the resilient elements extendingoutwardly therefrom.

3. A resilient floor according to claim 1 wherein said resilientstudlike elements are composed of cork.

4. A resilient floor according to claim 1, wherein said resilientstudlike elements are composed of resilient plastic.

5. A resilient floor according to claim 1 wherein said diaphragm iscomposed of a composite wood sheet.

6. A resilient floor according to claim 5 wherein said diaphragm iscomposed of a plurality of coplanar sheets and further comprising meansattaching the sheets in coplanar relation.

1. A resilient floor, for use in gymnastic and athletic establishments,comprising an upper floor, a resilient structure for supporting saidfloor and a rigid support beneath said resilient structure forsupporting same, said resilient structure comprising at least one lowerlayer of a plurality of resilient, independent, studlike elementssupported by said rigid support and spaced from each other anddistributed thereon in a spaced square formation, a diaphragm arrangedon said lower layer of resilient elements and spaced uniformly from saidrigid support, at least one upper layer of a plurality of resilient,independent, studlike elements arranged on said diaphragm and spacedfrom each other and distributed thereon in spaced squared formation anddisplaced relative to said resilient elements of the lower layer so thateach upper element lies in the center of the square formed by the lowerresilient elements when viewed in plan and a plurality of planar means,said resilient elements being attached thereto in the desired spacedrelation to facilitate the positioning of the elements when erecting thefloor, said upper floor resting on said upper layer of resilientelements.
 2. A resilient floor according to claim 1, wherein said planarmeans to which said resilient elements are attached are in turn attachedto opposite sides of said diaphragm with the resilient elementsextending outwardly therefrom.
 3. A resilient floor according to claim 1wherein said resilient studlike elements are composed of cork.
 4. Aresilient floor according to claim 1, wherein said resilient studlikeelements are composed of resilient plastic.
 5. A resilient flooraccording to claim 1 wherein said diaphragm is composed of a compositewood sheet.
 6. A resilient floor according to claim 5 wherein saiddiaphragm is composed of a plurality of coplanar sheets and furthercomprising means attaching the sheets in coplanar relation.